CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
After the helicopter finally set down at Honolulu Airport,
workmen moved it to a hangar for repairs. It was propped up
with jacks as the rotors were taken off.

Air One pilot has
brush with death
as copter loses sled
during landing

Steven Aiu managed to get the
copter back into the air and fly
to town for a safe landing

---

By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Up until the hard landing that broke off one side of his helicopter's landing gear, Honolulu Fire Department pilot Steven Aiu's Friday the 13th was going fine.

The department's Air One rescue helicopter had been dispatched to Laie for a "high angle rescue" near the Laie Water Recovery Facility at 11:41 a.m. yesterday.

A man performing maintenance on a cellular telephone antenna had experienced numbness on the left side of his body about halfway up the 110-foot tower. Another worker on the tower suspected the man suffered a mild stroke.

By the time Aiu arrived, firefighters from the Kahuku fire station were already helping the man to the ground. All Aiu needed to do was to direct the ambulance to the scene.

He had planned to land the helicopter in a grassy lot near the Brigham Young University campus. The ambulance was in a parking lot nearby.

But, Aiu said, "When I made an approach to the area, the wind kind of caught me and pushed me down."

That was at 12:18 p.m.

BARRY MARKOWITZ, SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BULLETIN
Air One hovered over its own detached sled shortly
after noon yesterday, just seconds after it had hit the
ground too hard while attempting a landing in Laie,
where it had been participating in a rescue.

Aiu said the helicopter dropped 20 to 25 feet to the ground, breaking off the left skid on impact.

He was able to direct the ambulance using hand signals while hovering the aircraft. He then called the fire department dispatcher to report what had happened, and headed toward Honolulu Airport.

Aiu said that because he did not know the extent of the damage, he flew over unpopulated areas and the ocean on his way to the Genesis Aviation hangar at 120 Kapalulu Place.

The flight took just 20 minutes, but Aiu said it seemed longer.

"I was thinking, it's Friday the 13th and it's not a good day."

Mechanics at Rotor Wing Hawaii were waiting for him with one jack to hold up the left side of the helicopter and one for the tail.

"We had it all ready to go. We knew exactly what we were going to do already when he got here," said Robert Ota, Rotor Wing Hawaii president.

Aiu put the helicopter down on the right skid as mechanics prepared a jack point on the left side of the cockpit and maneuvered the jack under it.

After Aiu lowered the helicopter onto the jack, the mechanics held down the tail and helped guide it onto the other jack.

"Getting it onto the jack took maybe eight guys," Ota said.

Ota said he thinks the damage is limited to the two broken skid poles, and anticipates having the helicopter repaired in about a week.

He will know for sure after doing a complete damage assessment today. Kahuku firefighters recovered the left skid.

Air One is the Fire Department's only helicopter, and while it is out of service, the department will rely on the military for rescue assistance.

The man who needed rescue in Laie was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital, where he was in stable condition. A nursing supervisor said doctors determined that the man had not suffered a stroke.